Ongoing Coverage of the Content Services Industry

Apr 23, 2012

In conjunction with the Content Services in India 2012 print report (published on April 23), PW will be adding new articles every other week on the state of the content services industry. Check back here regularly for interviews with content services vendors, product developers and publishers that will unveil new services, solutions and technologies.

Before the 1990s, publishers looked at India only for straightforward science and math book production for the higher-ed and professional segments. Inquiries for math and science textbooks were rare. Then slowly things changed, starting with school publishers approaching vendors such as Chennai-based diacriTech to produce supplementary materials.

In publishing, imitation is definitely not the best form of flattery. In fact, using another person's work—be it a small paragraph or an obscure quote—without proper permission may lead to copyright litigation.

For publishers and content services suppliers, ensuring a smooth and quick PDF-to-ePUB conversion—sans typos and formatting errors—has taken on a new urgency now that e-books are selling so well, and converting print titles into e-books is on top of everybody’s digital agenda.

Producing a biblical-themed illustrated English alphabet book is nothing new. But outsourcing its production to the largely Hindu India, where vendors are known for their prowess in the SSTM segment, is something else. It shows how much the Indian content services industry has expanded over the years, moving from the technical to the more creative side of the business.

In the past 15 years, much has changed in journal production services, the first segment outsourced to India. New technology, publishing models, and workflows have created a demand for ever more automation and faster production. And for Bangalore-based MPS Limited, the pioneer in journal services, tracking the segment's shifts and trends is standard business.

Onshore, offshore, hybrid, oh, my! Vendors are coming up with various collaborative methods to serve you better without shaking your comfort zone. But it is natural to feel jittery about outsourcing. After all, there is nothing simple about transferring your content (i.e., asset) to another person who is tens of thousands of miles away.

Most content services vendors are after the big game, aka the U.S. market, which usually brings in more than half of their business. This tends to be supplemented by several major accounts in continental Europe, mostly from Germany, where the STM and journal segments are established and mature. Only a few are tapping into the Scandinavian market, despite its reputation for having avid readers and prolific authors. PW talks to Jan Barsnes, co-owner of eBokNorden and Prograph in Norway, about the Scandinavian e-book industry and how he goes about outsourcing his projects.

In 2006, when PW released the first report on the content services industry in India, the topics centered on XML, PDF, and e-deliverables, and conversations revolved around print- vs. content-centric work flow.

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